Lando Norris, the McLaren driver, secured another second-place finish at the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas on Sunday. However, Norris expressed concerns that his team may have missed their best opportunity for a victory this season. Throughout his Formula One career, the 23-year-old Briton has come in second place five times, yet he has not claimed a victory yet.
The disqualification of Mercedes’ seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, long after the podium celebrations, resulted in Norris moving up to second place. As a result, McLaren also surpassed Aston Martin to secure fourth place overall. Despite the unexpected bonus, Norris regretted the missed chance for victory two weeks prior in Qatar, where he finished in third place after starting in 10th.
Oscar Piastri, Norris’ Australian rookie teammate, won the Lusail sprint and came in second in the main race at Qatar.
Reflecting on his missed opportunity for a win, Norris remarked, “I think Qatar was our best chance of winning a race. And I missed out on that one. I think there’s no… Qatar-style circuits left which is where we’re strong. If you looked at the GPS and the overlays of how bad we are in the slow speed I’m not looking forward to Brazil. I think we’re going to be pretty shocking there.”
During the U.S. Grand Prix, Norris took the lead from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was also later disqualified. However, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen overtook Norris at the halfway point and went on to win the race, marking his 50th win and matching the record of 15 wins in 18 races this season.
Verstappen mentioned to Norris that the latter has a good record in Abu Dhabi, which will host the season finale after the races in Mexico, Brazil, and Las Vegas.
Norris responded, “Maybe Abu Dhabi, you never know. We’ll see. I don’t think they’re any good ones for us coming up.” Norris is close to surpassing retired German driver Nick Heidfeld for the record of most podium appearances without a win. Heidfeld achieved 13 podium finishes, with eight of them being second places, before retiring in 2011.
Regarding future races, Norris stated, “I think our best have gone. I just want to be hopeful that we can do good results and I think we can still fight for podiums but these guys (Red Bull and Mercedes) are too quick for me. We can look decent, but I think realistically we’re not at that level as a general package with these guys. So yeah, not great ones coming up but Vegas, Abu Dhabi are probably the better ones.”
Reported by Alan Baldwin in London, edited by Christian Radnedge
